Recently a lot has been reported about Angelina Jolie’s new film which is a love story between a Bosniak woman and a Serb soldier. Information leaked to the Bosnian media suggested that the Bosniak woman was in a rape camp and falls in love with a Serb soldier. Several victim groups promptly reacted and asked for the film to be banned from being filmed in Bosnia.

It would be nice for Angleina to learn about the fate of Jasmina Ahmetspahic before making this film.

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Bosnia cancels Angelia Jolie filming permit

SARAJEVO, Oct 13 (Reuters) – A Bosnian minister on Wednesday canceled a permit for Angelina Jolie to shoot parts of her debut feature film in Bosnia, citing incomplete paperwork.

The Oscar-winning actress has begun shooting the film in Budapest and her production company said it was a love story between a Serbian man and a Bosnian woman who meet on the eve of the Bosnian war, which killed 100,000 people between 1992 and 1995. The filming should conclude in November in Bosnia.

Jolie has said the film would not meddle in politics, but an association of female victims from the Bosnian war has objected to what it says are details of the plot.

“In the film, a victim is really falling in love with her torturer,” Bakira Hasecic, president of the Women Victims of War association, was quoted as saying in Wednesday’s Oslobodjenje daily newspaper.

Sarajevo-based producer Scout Film said the narrative had nothing to do with the group’s accusation and said it was a love story. Jolie has offered to meet the women to reassure them about the movie’s content.

Hasecic urged authorities to ban the shooting of the film in Bosnia “because of the script which offends a female war victim and distorts the truth about what that woman has suffered in a detention camp,” according to the paper.

It was not immediately clear whether Hasecic had seen a copy of the script herself.

Culture and sports minister Gavrilo Grahovac canceled permission for the shoot in Bosnia.

“Since the request (for the shooting) is not in accordance with the law, it is incomplete and not accompanied by the necessary script, Minister Gavrilo Grahovac decided to annul the permit,” the ministry said in a statement.

SCRIPT PASSED TO MINISTRY

The statement said Scout Film may reapply to provide necessary documentation for the film which will be based on Jolie’s own screenplay and whose cast comes from the region.

“We were informed today that we need to amend the documentation and I have just forwarded the script to the ministry,” said Edin Sarkic, the Scout Film executive producer and location manager, adding the ministry had never asked for a script but only for a synopsis.

“I hope the film will get the green light after the officials see the script,” Sarkic told Reuters..

“The film has nothing to do with the allegation made by this women’s association. As we said before, it is only a love story.”

Jolie’s Los Angeles-based spokesman said it was “not true” that that there had been any protest about the movie. Asked about Hasecic’s complaint, the spokesman said she “brought something up, and UNHCR have been on the phone with her.”

Jolie, who is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, sent a letter to the women’s group last week and proposed a meeting with them the next time she comes to Sarajevo.

“Don’t judge me before you see the film,” Jolie said in a letter read to the women by Naveed Hussain, the UNHCR representative in Bosnia, and published in Oslobodjenje.